Some homeowners think that it is perfectly normal to hear your water heater making boiling sounds. But, your water heater doesn’t actually heat water up enough for it to boil. In fact, nowhere near it. If it does sound like your water heater is boiling, that’s a sign that you need to get the system flushed out.
Hearing a water heater boiling noise in Alachua may not correlate with actually seeing any negative impacts to hot water in your home. In fact, boiling is an early indicator that your hot water tank needs help. Allowing the boiling sound to continue for an extended period of time is when you get in trouble. Keep reading to learn more about why you want to get your water heater assessed by a plumbing expert if it sounds like it is boiling.
Cause of Boiling Sounds
The boiling or bubbling sounds that you hear coming from your water heater are usually caused by sediment buildup developing on the bottom of the hot water tank. This sediment comes from hard water. If your home has hard water, that means that it has high mineral content.
Keep in mind that if you run a faucet and fill up a glass of water, you won’t necessarily see these minerals floating around. They are so tiny that they can be invisible to the naked eye. But over a period of months and years, these minerals can become a sediment layer that you can see and hear.
When the heating element turns on to heat water, it stirs up these tiny minerals and causes them to move around. Different people describe the noise in different ways. Some people say it sounds like boiling, others say it sounds like bubbling, gurgling, or kettling. No matter how you describe the sound, it’s a bad sign for your water heater.
Risks of Sediment Buildup
Since the minerals found in hard water are not necessarily dangerous for your health, you may wonder why they’re a problem for your hot water tank. But this sediment can cause a lot of problems. It can create a layer that blocks the heating element in the hot water tank from heating the water efficiently.
This may mean that when you turn on a hot water faucet in your home, the water is not as hot as you expect it to be. You may also notice your energy bills creep up as your water heater works harder to heat the water to a higher temperature.
These minerals can also build up in some of the smaller pipes coming to and from your water tank, potentially leading to clogs. Even worse, the sediment can corrode the inside of your water tank so that it needs to be replaced sooner.
Addressing Hard Water
The good news is, you have a couple of options for preventing the boiling sound and protecting your water heater. You can have the system flushed out once a year to remove these minerals so they can’t do damage inside your water tank.
You could also go a step further to have a water softener installed in your home to remove these minerals before the water ever enters your plumbing system. It’s a great way to protect all of your plumbing fixtures from damage due to these mineral deposits.
Contact Affinity Gas Services today to schedule an appointment with our professionals. We’re “The Gas Efficiency Experts.”